The Reliance Foundation’s Vantara announced on Monday has a 650-acre Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre for animals from distressed and dangerous environments from India and all over the world, where they are rescued and housed in state-of-the-art large enclosures and shelters. Over 2,000+ animals across 43 species are under the care of the centre.
With a staff strength of about 2,100+, the rescue and rehabilitation centre has rescued about 200 leopards from all over India, which have suffered injuries in road accidents or man-wild conflicts. It has rescued over 1,000 crocodiles from a severely overcrowded and congested facility in Tamil Nadu. It has rescued animals from hunting lodges in Africa, animals under threat of euthanasia in Slovakia, severely distressed animals from facilities in Mexico.
The Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre has a 1 lakh sqft area for hospital and medical research centre. The hospital and research centre possess the most advanced technology with an ICU, MRI, CT scan, X-ray, ultrasound, endoscopy, dental scalar, lithotripsy, dialysis, OR1 technology that enables live videoconferences for surgeries and blood plasma separator.
For about 7 endangered species of Indian as well as foreign animals, the Centre has started conservation breeding programs with the objective of having a viable reserve population to repopulate the populations of endangered species in their native habitats to save them from extinction.
Reliance Industries and Reliance Foundation on Monday announced the launch of their Vantara (Star of the Forest) programme, an umbrella initiative to focus on rescue, treatment, care and rehabilitation of injured, abused and threatened animals, both in India and abroad. The Vantara initiative, the first-of-its-kind in India, has been conceptualised and birthed under the passionate leadership of Anant Ambani, Director on the boards of RIL and Reliance Foundation. Spread over 3,000 acres within the Green Belt of Reliance’s Jamnagar Refinery Complex in Gujarat, Vantara aims to be one of the leading contributors to conservation efforts globally.
Today, the Vantara ecosystem has provided a new lease of life and hope to over 200 elephants, over 300 large felines such as leopards, tigers, lions, jaguars etc., over 300 herbivores such as deer and over 1,200 reptiles such as crocodiles, snakes and turtles.
In an exclusive interview to CNN-News18’s Anand Narasimhan, Anant Ambani said, “We have had many [checks]. The trusts have been going to court many times, and we have always argued well, and we are legally compliant. We comply with every statutory compliance… Getting an animal is not easy. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India has certain guidelines. The state government has guidelines. We are extremely regulated. We follow every law to the T."
All the rescued animals have been brought to Vantara after obtaining prior approval from the Chief Wildlife Wardens of the respective states and the Central Zoo Authority as per provisions laid under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the recognition Zoo rules, 2009. All animal exchange programmes are done on approval/permission from the Central Zoo Authority.
Vantara has also answered to exchange requests from other institutions in India and overseas. Such animals were brought in after obtaining necessary permissions from the Central Zoo Authority, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.
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